


The Dark Dance

by Maliciouspixie5



Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fae, Dreams vs. Reality, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Rape/Non-con Elements, Sadism, So far from Stepanie's dream it's wayyyy out there, Some Humor, Very AU, some triggers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-05
Updated: 2017-05-05
Packaged: 2018-10-28 11:21:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10830240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maliciouspixie5/pseuds/Maliciouspixie5
Summary: The fairy tales and warnings Bella Swan’s grandmother used to tell her were real.  Never, ever dance in a Fairy Circle, and never be drawn in by a handsome Fae male.  One night Bella is drawn from her home into the forest by the lure of a fairy circle – will she join the dance?





	The Dark Dance

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, I started this fic back in 2012 when a fairy ring popped up in my mother's front lawn. That day was bright and sunny and I was taking care of their lawn which is a massive undertaking. Like the story I was hot, sweaty, and just wanted to be finished. The fairy ring was small, only a meter across. My imagination just went crazy. I wish to this day I had gone back at midnight and danced in it. Next time I find one, I will.
> 
> In the last three years I have migrated to other fandoms, namely Sherlock, and lost the mood to write for Twilight. I started getting PM’s to complete it so I thought that I would reedit the whole thing and move it to AO3 and hopefully in the process finish the damn thing. After this if I’m back in the writing swing I am going to fix and finish My Blue Pixie.
> 
> So…. Review please, it keeps me writing. 
> 
> I've got it written all the way to Chapter 15. I don't know why it looks different when I hit post that it did before I hit the magic button so sorry if it looks wierd. I'm doing the best I can, sorry/

The Fairy Ring

Chapter 1

‘I am so tired,’ Bella thought to herself. It had been a long day of weed eating, mowing and yard maintenance at her mother and step fathers home in Jacksonville.  
She actually missed Charlie's dinky little yard and all those woods surrounding it that you didn't have to mow and take care of. Here in Florida it seemed the grass grew over night and the weeds grew at least a foot a day. What possessed them to choose this home outside of town with a three acre yard? But the yard care was the least she could do since she had free room and board while attending college.

This week was the start of spring break, so she wanted to get all of her chores done so she would have a whole week to goof off and be young. It was also a perk that she would have the house to herself for the next year. Oh sweet freedom, what will I do with you?

Her mother, Renee, was in Japan with her husband Phil, for a year while he played baseball with the Nippon Professional Baseball League. He played in the central league for the Hanshin Tigers. The team was based in Nishinomiya, Hyogo, and the couple had a home rented there for the year.

Renee had called last night at one in the morning, forgetting the time difference of course, and talked for twenty minutes. She was bubbling over that there was a University near them, one which Bella could attend. She would of course have to move to Japan, but her mother saw no difficulty in this. ‘There is no way in hell,’ she thought to herself while her mother nattered on, but was a little more polite when she answered. She would get over there and then be left by herself in a foreign country when Renee decided that Japan was boring and America was calling her home. No, she would stay here and house sit, thanks, but no thanks. How on earth could she afford to attend college overseas? Her mother never was one to be very realistic.

Rene tended to be flighty at best. Take today when Bella had found the fairy ring in the back corner of the property. Her mother would have them out there dancing in the moonlight at midnight. You never knew what Renee would come up with next. She was a free spirit and would try anything where Bella was cautious and questioned everything.

Renee would love the photos Bella planned to send her later. It was the first time she had ever seen a fairy ring, she had read of them and her grandmother had told her stories about them, but seeing one was a surprise. It was located in the back corner of the property bordering a pine wood thicket that went on for miles. The ring was perfect circle of various sized white mushrooms that stretched about ten feet in diameter. The pines in the yard encircled it, and not one weed grew within its boundary. Upon seeing it she had immediately put down the weed eater and ran for her camera.

Her grandmother had grown up in Ireland, and had told her tales of the Fae, she called them the fair folk. The stories were of magical and mischievous beings and some of the stories were almost too scary for a child. She told her that the Fae were always on the lookout for humans to play with and virgins to take home to the underground. They were eternal, never dying and if you went into a fairy mound when you came out years could have passed in what seemed to you but an hour.  
‘I need to Google fairy rings later tonight,’ Bella thought, trying to remember all her grandmother had told her of the rings. She removed her shoes at the door and entered the spacious kitchen. She pulled a chicken breast from the freezer and placed it in the sink to thaw later for her dinner. Turning towards the laundry room, she removed her sweaty and filthy clothes and placed them in the piles of matching colors to be washed later when she felt more up to it. At the moment all she wanted was a bath.

She walked naked to her bedroom, passing through it to her ensuite bath. Her head still floated above the clouds thinking of fairy rings and what she planned to do during her school free week. Maybe get with a group of school friends and head to the beach. A trip to the local library was a must do, as well as grocery shopping. Maybe she would do those tomorrow and pick up a new bottle of sunscreen. She all but bathed in it, and had already used up most of the bottle she had. It wasn't pleasant having this type of skin, fair to the point of looking sick. While others tanned, Bella just burned, peeled and repeated the process.

She started the shower, setting it for lukewarm. It was so hot outside she couldn't bear the thought of a hot shower also. She pulled two towels and a wash cloth from the linen closet and placed them on the stool next to the bath. Stepping into the shower she let the tepid water rinse the filth of the day away.

Later, feeling much cleaner and relaxed, she chopped yellow and green squash to go with her dinner. ‘Stir-fry for one,’ Bella thought as she pulled the other ingredients from the fridge. Lucky she wasn't one that needed companionship at all times, unlike her mother. No, Bella liked her alone time and was comfortable with long periods with seeing no one.

She stepped back to the fridge and removed an opened bottle of chardonnay and some soy sauce for the stir-fry. Darkness fell as she finished cooking and pulled a plate and glass from the cupboard. Quickly plating her meal she walked to the dining nook with her plate and placed her plate upon the table and then returned to the kitchen for the chardonnay bottle and the container of soy. Back in the dining nook, she picked up her latest novel and read while she absentmindedly munched on dinner.

Later, as she washed the dishes, she peered across the back lawn. She tried in vain, but couldn't see the fairy ring from here. Taking a sip of wine, she looked up over the tree tops at the full moon and mussed to herself, ‘I bet it's pretty in the moonlight.’

After all her dishes were dry, and she had put the last in the cupboard, she was drawn back to the window over the sink. The fairy ring seemed to call to her with some sort of invisible pull, beckoning her outside. She shook her head, as if to clear it, and picking up her book, walked from the room.

She watched the news later that night, or at least she tried to. It was nothing but politics, violence, and malice. ‘The world today is just so depressing,’ she thought, and she picked up her glass and returned it to the kitchen. As she placed the glass in the sink she realized she had drank half the bottle of wine. 

"Wow, you lush, better stagger your way to the bed." She giggled with a tipsy grin. She looked out through the window over the sink again, eyes drawn to the ring. It pulled to her, stronger now, but again she turned from the pull and walked toward her bedroom.

She changed into her nightgown, a pale filmy white creation that her mother had given her for Christmas last year. It had spaghetti straps holding up a flimsy V-neck bodice with an empire waist, the skirt was diaphanous and long. She would have put on her usual sweats and a tee, but being out in the heat all day she felt like wearing something loose and cool would be better for her rest tonight. Maybe she would dream of fairy rings and handsome men with pointed ears and dreamy eyes.  
Three hours later she was awake, unable to sleep. She kicked the covers from her body, slipped on her slippers, and walked to the French doors on the other side of the room. Stepping out onto the veranda, she walked toward her favorite lounge chair. Crickets, cicadas, and frogs sang a loud chorus in the night.

"Oh hell, I'm out here might as well go see it in the dark," she mumbled, and walked down the steps to the garden. She considered for a moment going back inside for a flash light, but since the moon was so bright she thought she wouldn't need it. 

As she walked toward the back of the property, she heard the grandfather clock strike. Counting the dongs, she realized it was twelve midnight.  
It was so different out here after dark. The air was much cooler, and moonlight filtered otherworldly through the pines. The light from the patio was just a faint blue glow. The snap and zap from the bug light had faded the closer she got to the fairy circle. It wasn't scary; it was still and ethereal out here in the moonlight. Up ahead she could see the circle almost glowing of its own accord in the small clearing of pines.

A faint breeze blew her gown around her ankles and she shivered. She should have brought her shawl. Her slippers were soaked with the dew, and the moisture seeped through them, onto her feet, chilling her even further. 

‘I don't know what possessed me to go outside to see a fairy ring in the moonlight.’ It was a nightmarish thought. ‘Am I becoming like my flaky mother? Who is kidding who, Renee would be out here naked dancing in the fairy ring even if it was freezing. I however, have my clothes on and my dignity intact.’

It seemed, as she stepped into the clearing, as if all sound, except that of the rustle of wind in the tree tops above, stopped. The cicadas and frog noise just suddenly ceased to exist. The air was heavy and perfumed with the wild honeysuckle that grew in the woods. In the faint blue light of the moon, dew sparkled on the grass giving it a glittery look and the mushrooms of the circle glowed with an inner light. 

“Wow, this is a setting for a movie; all that is needed is Bottom with his Mule head or maybe David Bowie in his Goblin King Regalia.” She whispered and stepped into the circle and it was as if the forest took a deep breath and held it afraid to let it go.

Upon the night came a sound, one that could have been the wind in the tree tops, but it sounded hollow and long. It came again from deep within the woods, and this time the sound was defiantly not the wind. A flute maybe, the tune it played was vaguely familiar and haunting. It was on the tip of her tongue, but never where she could fully grasp it. Sound echoed and the tune seemed to surround her; it was solid, almost caressing her skin.

A voice clear as a bell came with the next repeat of the tune. Words rang so beautifully on the air, but carried a sinister quality with the spoken words. The tune was slow and the song seemed to hang on each note.

"Trust in me, just in me."

They spilled into the light of the clearing like a dream, silent in the night. First a waif like girl dressed in a flowing gown of silken gauze the color of the palest blue. Her blue black hair was cropped short and spiky, and her eyes glowed in shades of blue. They were tri-color, almost like the different layers in a coming storm. She looked electrical, like a moment before a lightning bolt hit. The tune she sang wove hypnotic rhymes in the air freezing her instinct to flee from this unknown scene. She would sing a verse and then take a slithering step and then sing another. It was like some mad version of a wedding march.

"Close your eyes, and trust in me."

Behind her walked a tall lithe man with shoulder length blond hair. He was beautiful, dressed in a dark leather pants with a dove grey poet's shirt. His eyes were shades of blue and grey, again layered like the girls. His aura was mischievous, but the smirk on his face was not friendly. When the small woman stopped just outside the circle he wrapped his arms around her and placed his head upon her shoulder never breaking Bella's gaze. She feared this man and automatically took a step back. But then the girl started on the next verse of the song and she was trapped mid step by the music once more.

"Shut your eyes, and Trust in me,"

The tune floated on the wind encircling her in its spell. She broke the gaze of the blonde man only because of a movement from behind the couple. Two tall people, a blonde woman with amber, yellow, and brown glowing eyes approached holding the arm of an even taller man. She almost blazed in the dark, her hair looked like it was spun of pure sun rays and her skin had a shimmering sun kissed look. She carried herself regally, and wore an indifferent almost superior look upon her face. Her look was one to suggest that she was gracing us all with her royal presence. Her gown clung to her in a yellow shimmer of silk.

Her escort, almost humanly plain beside this goddess, was also in leather pants, but he wore a black vest instead of a shirt. He was very muscular, and his hair was close cropped and was a dark brown like fresh tilled earth. His eyes were green and purple and held a sparkle of pure mirth. The humor radiating from his eyes were the epitome of Puck and a quote from "The Midsummer's Night Dream" crossed her lips before she could stop it, "Are you not he, that frights the maidens of the villagery?" He erupted in laughter at her whispered recitation.

His laughter startled her so much she felt the spell of the music snap for a moment and thought to herself that if she could just get out of the circle and into the trees she could get away from these people. But she knew, in her bones, that these beings weren't human. They were what her Irish granny spoke of in whispers and bed time stories. These were the Fae, the Sidhe, the riders of the Wild Hunt, the owners of the Fairy ring. Bella knew she was in a world of trouble.

"I am that Merry, Wanderer of the night," he answered her also in verse from the play. And then said loudly, "Not!" he chuckled wickedly, and her fear spiked.  
Bella turned and started to run but the pixie woman's voice caught her once more in its web.

"You can sleep, safe and sound,"

The magic of the song latched on to her harder this time, and she straightened and turned back once more, her body lurched unwilling toward the Fae standing outside of the circle. When she raised her fearful eyes this time they were met with the owner of the flute as he exited the wood and approached the circle. If the others were beautiful, this one could only be called, ‘Godly’ in his beauty. He was tall, dressed in leather pants and nothing more. His hair was the color of copper with veins of brown. His eyes held so many shades of green that she swore they swirled like a kaleidoscope. His skin was the color of the moonlight and seemed to glow like a full moon. Smiling he lowered the flute and gave her a lopsided smile.

 

Chapter 2

BPV  
"Wake up sleepy head!" It’s that damn screechy voiced pixie.

"Alice, go away," I whine. My head is pounding and I’m scared to open my eyes, and my body just aches, what? "What the hell did we do last night?" I ask while rubbing my eyes.

"Hmmm, was it the Yeager or the Rum you were celebrating with?" The crazed bitch is sniggering at me. She never gets a hangover. She is the size of Thumbelina and drinks like a dock worker.

"I remember pineapple juice, I think?" Oh God she was doing the mystery mix on the drinks again.

"Baby, you did the Goombay Smash." She plops down beside me on the double chaise lounge. The sun trickles in above from the Wisteria canopy above our heads and pierces my eyes. The smell of the wisteria above and gardenia border beside the patio is heavenly sweet. The wind brings the smell of the honeysuckle growing wild in the woods to add to their perfume. It's strangely familiar for some reason. I just feel like I have woken from some epic dream. Nothing feels real yet. There was something that I needed to remember. No matter, I put it out of my mind, I’m sure I will remember later.

"What were we celebrating? I don't remember." In fact, all of last night is foggy for me.

"Spring break you lush, and the fact that we found a new roommate."

Oh now I think I remember why she brought out the alcohol. "Alice, why did I let you talk me into letting Rosalie Hale move in with us? She is such a bitch."

"Hmm, I think it was the money honey. She is from very old money, lots and lots of it. And you know that the checks won't bounce."

"I can get a job for the summer. Working retail sounds more pleasant that living with her." I make a plan to go looking as soon as I sober up. When I try to sit up more aches make themselves known and I flop back down groaning. Maybe not, I can just lay here for another night.

"Bella, Phil has the mortgage covered and all you had to worry about is the utilities. My rent check covers that and gives you the money for living expenses and the little extras. Rose's check will go to your schooling and savings. Trust in me."

"Save me from smart people, sunlight, and hangovers." I mumble and roll slowly to my side and look at her. "You’ve got it all figured out."

She taps her head and then grins at me with her Cheshire cat grin. She is such a scary little pixie. "I have the site, remember? I’m a financial mystic and future financial billionaire. I will own Wall Street one day." She boasts with that grin.

I don't doubt her. Never bet against the pixie. 

"Ok, time to get up." I painfully push myself up when I do a stain on my night gown catches my eye. "What the hell!" There is dried blood on my night gown. I pull it up and it’s on my upper thighs around my crotch. At the sight of the blood I feel a deep ache between my legs. It's been there all this time, but somehow I haven't felt it till now.

I look up at Alice and her grin is slowly fading. She doesn’t look like my friend, wait, I don’t have a friend named Ali… She starts humming a tune. I remember now, eyes, oh God help. Those green swirling eyes. I remember. Dancing and swirling around a fairy ring. Swirling in a dance with my pulse pounding in my ears, swirling. There was a white quilt on the ground in the center of the mushrooms. I was swirling, twirling, the night gown slipping from me. I am cold and naked in the night. Eyes watching us, encircling us, green eyes hold mine, something hard pushing inside me, ripping, and heat exploding inside me. What? My head questions me, and then she has me caught in her musical web again.

"Trust in me, just in me. Close your eyes,” And I do.

APV

"And cue the little Zombie," the sarcastic voice of Rose came from behind me. I turn to look at her approach. Oh she is a bitter pill. Life has thrown her a few disappointments. But we are Fae and when your life span is as long as ours, the disappointments tend to add up.

She appears before me in a shimmer of gold glitter. Seelie gold I sneer at her. I grind my teeth at her regal attitude, show off.

"Mab, how is it going with the potential savior of the Fae race?'

"Alice, I go by Alice now as you very well know. Mab is best forgotten to the ages." I grit my teeth at the audacity she has to smear that name in my face. Bitch.

She gives me a bitter laugh and continues unchastised. "Mab, madam to the Fae. The procurer of pussy for a dead king. Midwife to none."  
My hands clench and my claws threaten to pop out.

"Wow, still bearing a grudge against dearly departed daddy?" I smirk back at the vixen. I had to get a dig in retaliation.

Her father, the late Seelie King gave Rose to the Unseelie Queen as a token of peace. He knew what would happen to her in the Unseelie court. He may have been the golden king, ruler of the good and just Seelie, but he was a crueler bastard than any Unseelie monster. He had no use for daughters. I think the reason he was rendered sterile by the Goddess was payment for what he did to her. He got his just rewards in the end though. The Fae will sacrifice the infertile to bring forth new fruit. Trim the tree of the dead wood, so to speak. So far, no fruit, but I am working on that. The Goddess will provide.

Rose was abused by our warped Queen. Queen Elizabetta is a soulless monster, her appetites range from just cruel to the disturbingly bizarre. Male or female, it matters naught to her, she will play with her latest toy until they are in tatters, and then discard the remains. We are immortal so playtime can be a long, long hellish time. After she was finished playing with Rose, she was given as a gift to Duke Emmett, as a reward for him, joining the royal guard in service to her son, Prince Edward.

Rose, I think, was insulted that she didn't go to the prince himself, but she was lucky in the end. Emmett fell madly in love with the harpy. How he puts up with her, I haven't a clue. She is bitter, angry, and makes any one in her range miserable, except for Emmett. Her brother, Prince Carlisle, took control of his father’s court after his sacrifice and then petitioned our Queen for her return, but by then her pride and surprisingly to everyone, her love for Emmett, would not let her go back. She knows that if she goes back, she will be a leper to the golden court, princess or not. We, the Unseelie are unclean, and all we touch are eventually corrupted. Even a Seelie Princess.

"Keep on mind wiping her, and she will become a useless rag doll for your darling Prince," she smirks.

"You know Rose, we have to keep her calm and hidden from the Queen, till we know that Edwards seed has produced a child. The real danger will begin then."

"Why our future rest on a human I will never understand?" She sniffed disdainfully, looking down at Bella on the chase lounge as if she were an insect. The human that holds all of our futures in her womb rests there with her hair spread out around her in a halo. Her white night gown is pulled up to her thighs and the remains of her virginity staining her thighs and gown.

"She is the virgin foretold and the fruit of her womb will bring forth the savior of our race. The Fae will be separate no more, and the Unseelie will reign." I quote the old prophesy made by a fellow seer eons ago. All the while I smile to myself knowing that that was just only part of the given prophesy. The believers think what they breed off this human will be the savior of the Unseelie. But I know the child is only one piece of the puzzle. I know that the child is our future queen but at her side will be a Seelie king. That is what will unite the Fae as one people’

"Oh, please, like that egotistical bunch will ever let it happen. That Unseelie bitch will never give up her power."

"That's what you and I are for Rose, my dear. We are her guardians, until Edward comes to claim his bride and child. Help me get her in the house and changed, then we can work on what to tell her later."

We look down as Bella stirs and mumbles longingly, "Edward."  
I know deep within her subconscious she knows what happened last night. She was a more than willing participant in the end. I just have to keep her under my spell till I know she is ready for the truth, but until that time I will let her dreams and my altered version reality do the work for me.

Chapter 3  
I’m dreaming, Grands dead. She’s been dead for a while now. But here she is before me. I smell her perfume and feel the warmth of the sunshine on my skin.  
There is a tea table is set up outside in the clearing, dead center of the fairy ring. Gran has done her best, the antique lace table cloth was her mothers, and if you know where to look, you can see the careful patches. It is well used and loved. Her collection of pink Depression glass is on display. The pink tiered cake plates are stacked on top of each other in the center of the table. The top has my favorite cupcakes, or as Gran all ways calls them, "fairy cakes". The second tier has her cucumber and famous pimento cheese sandwiches cut up in delicate crust less triangles. The bottom tier has an assortment of ooey-gooey butter cakes. My favorite is the lemon, but I have been known to go overboard on her pumpkin ooey-gooey every now and then. Strawberries are heaped in a bowl awaiting a healthy dose of cream.

She has set the table proudly with her French African Purple Violets china. This must be serious because she guards this china like the queen guards her jewels.  
The tea pot I know will hold either English Afternoon or Lady Grey tea. Gran is a bit of tea snob. American tea bags will not do, it has to be proper loose English tea. Go figure.

Gran grips my arm in hers as we walk the path to the clearing. My long white skirt picks up nettles as we walk and the birds chirp merrily in the trees. I hear a whip-poor-will in the distance. 

"I suspect we will have our whip-poor-will storm soon," gran says as she leads us into pleasant tea time conversation.

"Those terrified me as a child during the night time." I shiver at the memory of the noise of the wind so loud whipping the trees against the windows and all that howling. "The day time ones were ok."

"I remember you used to hide under the bed.” She looks at me with a stern expression and arches an eyebrow, “But hiding under beds never made the storms disappear did they Isabella?" 

“No Grandma,” I reply. I see that it's going to be one of those kinds of tea times. I remember the stern granny of the past, giving tea time lectures on manners and posture. Like those outdated rituals really matter now days.

She shakes her head, and says in a disgusted tone of voice. "Your mother loved them."

I giggle. "Yes she did, and if it wasn't lightning we would go out into the rain and wade in ditches and play." I smile at the goofy antics of my mother during my childhood. Maybe mother was rebelling at the stiffness of grandma's life.

“I remember once she brought dish washing liquid outside with us and sprayed the grass with it. The storm was going crazy around us and she was sliding and laughing in the bubbly grass like it was a slip and slide."

"I should be thankful that I didn't have to bury the both of you with some of her odd schemes. I didn't think I would ever get her raised and out of the house in one piece."

I smile. That's mom, unpredictable and wild. She has never grown out of it.

Gran continues, "You were always the sensible one, Bella, even when you were small. My daughter on the other hand has always been lost in a land of fairy tales."  
She leans forward to me as if what she has next to convey to me is in confidence.

"Isabella, my dear. We need to have a serious talk," she pauses to take a sip of her tea and sets it gently down in the saucer. When did she pour the tea? She then continues. "You're in a spot of trouble little love, and the only way you're going to get out of it is to remember."

"Remember?" I ask confused.

"Remember all the stories I told you as a child. Those fairy tales were warnings of a sort."

"I loved your stories gran. Oh and I especially liked the one about the pooka pony. I always wanted to go on one of those wild rides." I lapse into memories of some of the stories.

"The pony drowned little girls and boys foolish enough to take a ride remember! No baby, I need you to remember the bad ones. What did I tell you about the bad ones? How can your protect yourself from the bad ones? Look for them, look in my memories.”

Gran is confusing me, in her memories? How can I look in her memories, she is gone and not able to tell me anything anymore. I look over at this dream version of my beloved Grandma. This is a dream, only a dream.

"It's getting dark on us, eat some cake dear.” She nods down at my full plate. “But not the fairy cakes with the cold iron shavings, let’s not eat those. Save those for the guest." Gran smiles and it’s not a pleasant one. 

She pats my hand away from the beautiful fairy cake on my plate with the sprinkles on top. Pretty sprinkles, they shimmer in the light. They do look like metal of some sort. 

This is so surreal, I know it’s a dream but I can’t wake up. I lie on my back looking up into the tops of the trees and hear the rumble of thunder in the distance. Maybe Grandma’s predicted storm is coming. I can smell the rain in the air mixing with the ozone from the lightning. It’s coming, soon.

I roll to my side on the quilt and trace the patterns sewn into it. The edges are scalloped and the pattern is what Gran would call the wedding ring. Edward slides in behind me pulling me close. He nuzzles at the side of my neck, and I can feel his smile upon my skin.

"Pretty maiden, what brings you to my wood tonight?" He whispers into my ear and brings chill bumps down my skin. I smile and roll with him till he is on his back and I am nestled into his side. My arm is draped across his stomach. There is not an ounce of fat on him, just hard abs under my palm. We smile and gaze into each other’s eyes, like all lovers have since the dawn of time.

He smells of honeysuckle and rain. I tilt my lips up to his for a kiss, our lips meet and tongues tease. His warm hand slides up my side to cup my breast and my nipples tighten at his touch. Our kisses become deeper and he rolls me onto my back. The thunder rolls over us and we break from the kisses to look up into the oncoming storm and then back at each other. Our lashes gather the rain and the storm breaks around us unleashing a torrent of rain.

/**********/

The rumbling of the thunder wakes me from my sleep. I didn't want to roll out of the bed though. Nothing beats a soft bed with mountains of pillows and hand sewn quilts. Well, maybe someone to share it with would be nice. That would have to wait though. I could hear Alice in the kitchen banging pots around. She can burn water so if I would like anything edible for breakfast I had better roll out and do it myself.

"Morning sleepy head," she greets me as I walk into the kitchen. She is clutching a small frying pan in one hand and looking questionably at a carton of eggs in the other. We are so not calling out the fire department this early. I take the eggs from her before she breaks them, opening the fridge to put it back.

"Alice, let me make breakfast and you can order us pizza for dinner." Her smile lights up the room when I say this, and she jumps at not cooking and quickly puts the pan back under the counter.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Alice chants, clapping and hopping in place. She gets a wicked look in her eye and says loudly, "What are you craving for breakfast?"

"Funny, you should mention that. I woke up craving strawberries and cream. I must have been dreaming about food again." I stand in front of the open fridge and wish, but alas, no strawberries. I pull out the orange juice and sit it upon the counter.

Alice pulls two juice cups down for me. "Why would you want to dream about food? I want to dream naughty dreams." She says with a giggle.

I giggle at that also and pull frozen waffles out of the freezer. 

"Those dreams are nice too." We work in tandem, I put the waffles in the toaster and she pulls syrup from the pantry. I pull down the dishes as she lays out the table.  
"Hot, sweaty dreams." She runs a finger down her cleavage in thought. Abruptly, she asked, "Bella, when are you going to find someone?"

Alice is in match maker mode again. Ever since she hooked up with Jasper, she thinks everybody needs to be in love. "Hmmm, or is there someone there already?"  
"Only in my dreams Alice, only in my dreams.” I sigh loudly, and hear a wicked giggle from the eating area.

"Oh, don't forget we need to clean out the spare room today for Rose. She wants to start moving in this weekend"

"Oh, joy to the world," I snarl losing my happy morning buzz. I still can’t believe I gave the go ahead for the wicked bitch of the pan handle to move in with us. Money, it had to be the money. 

"Give her a chance Bella."

"OK, I'll try. It's just her superior attitude. Last time I saw her, I had a head cold and her snooty comments just made me want to slap her with my dirty Kleenex."  
Alice almost drops on the floor laughing at this. "If you get that urge again, please let me watch. "Bells, we also need to do a little shopping. Groceries and girly stuff are getting low."

"Oh, I have another week before I have to worry about that. Hey, I will make a deal with you."

"OK?" She arches one brow in a question. I envy that arch. No matter how much I practice, I will never be able to do that. That devious little pixie knows it and flaunts it. Brat!

"If you do the shopping, I will clean the spare room." It's a win, win situation. I hate to shop and she hates to clean.  
I can see she wants to say yes, but for some reason she is hesitating. 

"I won't ask for help with the rest of the house this week either." I truly don't want to go to town today. I want to stay inside out of the heat.  
"Deal," she yells. I knew that one would be the clincher. 

"Make me a list of what you want from the store and any other thing you may need. Just put it by my car keys." She dances out of the kitchen heading toward her room.

I add strawberries and cream to the top of the list.

/************/

Alice's car leaves a dust trail as she heads down the drive on the way to town. I wave good-bye one more time and shut the door.

Leaning with my back to the door, I think to myself, ‘alone time,’ as I sigh happily. 

Going into the utility room, I grab three clothes hampers, a bucket, cleaning solution, rags for cleaning, pledge, a dust rag, and a roll of garbage bags. I pile all this in the hampers. What is good can go in the hampers to box up later; the rest can go out in the garbage. I'm from the Rachel Ray School of cooking and cleaning. Get all you need out with one trip and don't waste your time.

Since it was the spare room, mom really didn't put a lot of work into decorating it. There is an old iron bed, a small night stand, grans hope chest, and a large dresser with a mirror on top. The hope chest will go into my room since gran left it to me in her will. I pull clothes from the dresser and closet, and pile into two of the clothes hampers pushing them into the hall.

I need to start a tally on how many boxes I will need to pack all this junk up. Mentally, I add strapping tape to the shopping list. Maybe Phil will have some supplies in his work shop. I make another mental note to look through that area later.

There is just a large picture over the bed to worry about, and it's not hard to remove. I place it in the hall for later. The bed spread and sheets, I pull from the bed to wash. If Rose brings her own, I will box these up to go with the other things to the garage. With just a few nick knacks to top off the hamper, I am finished with stage one. Now I’m on to stage two, cleaning up the mess. I pull up my sleeves and get to it.

I take the hampers to the garage along with the picture and nick knacks. The hope chest is large and very heavy, it took a lot of effort to bring it to my room, but after much pushing and pulling I have it where I want it. I will explore it later. I finish cleaning the room and am done an hour later. After a quick bath and a cold glass of tea from the fridge, I settle down in my room to go through grans hope chest.

She passed two years ago and left everything to mom with the condition that half of what the house sold for was to go to my college education. I also got the hope chest, and everything in it untouched. It's a massive old cedar box, not pretty at all. I never liked the thing, and always thought it looked like a mummy's sarcophagus.  
I kneel before it, opening the lid. The old cedar smell hits me straight in the face. The first glimpse of grans treasures leaves me missing her all the more. Gran's china and silver are boxed carefully and they take up a good portion of the chest. Her mother's lace table cloth is wrapped in tissue. I pull it out and put it to the side. Her old jewelry box is there and in it are her and gramps wedding bands, assorted ear rings, and a silver hair comb encrusted with sapphires.

Her wedding gown is boxed up and I leave it boxed. I will pull it out later to look at, there is too much dust in here and I want nothing to get on it. Under the gown is a wooden box about the size of a hat box. This is strange because I have never seen it before.

I open it carefully. There are a few odd things in it and I lift each out one by one. Out first is a horse shoe, and next is an iron rail road spike. A vial with what looks like powdered metal of some sort, another vial that contains odd nails that look like they are handmade. Then I pull out a black leather sheath that holds a knife with a black handle. It's odd, for it is carved with what looks like the astronomical sign for Virgo. Gran and I are the family Virgo's. There are other symbols carved into the blade, but they don't look familiar to me.

A book rest on the bottom, its title is ‘Fairies in Legend and Lore.’ I will have to read it later. 

What on earth was gran up too? I hear Alice's Porsche in the driveway, for some reason I hide the box under the bed. I don't know why it just seems important that this stays hidden for now.

 

Chapter 5

EPOV

I stride down the corridor flanked by six guards. Two guards each in front of me and behind me and one at each side all armed to the teeth in an assortment of knives, guns and armor. You can’t put a date on the various weapons. The guns are all quite obviously twentieth century and loaded with a mix of lead and silver bullets. The Fae are hard, if not impossible, to kill, so the best you can do is incapacitate them for a short period of time. When you have them down, do your best to destroy what is left till you can see evidence that there is no heart beat or brain function. I once saw a Fae turned into a flesh ball, a living, breathing, flesh ball! He is still down here somewhere in that tortured form. 

My Captain of the Guard, Jasper and his XO, Emmett have gone on to their suite of rooms to be with their ladies before the banquet my mother has planned for tonight. I do not look forward to any of her entertainments. Eternity can be boring, and she tends to seek entertainment in the form of victimizing her followers. She doesn’t pull the wings off flies instead; she pulls the arms off courtiers. Goddess help you if she is bored.

My thoughts fall to Isabella; I can’t seem to wipe her from my mind. Her human beauty had done something to me. But I have to wipe her from my mind completely before meeting with mother. Mother can draw out your deepest, darkest secrets. She will leach them from you and then torture you with them for her own sick amusement. She amuses herself and the court that way. There is nothing trivial about it when it’s you before mother and wicked crowd. It’s quite a horrible situation to be in, I know from experience.

Oh my lovely mother had had her fun with me. Discipline she called it. Torture, was what it was, and it is her perverse pleasure to bring it to anyone whether right or wrong, she doesn’t seem to care. Mother always takes it to the border of taboo with me. Mother, I hate calling that woman that. Elizabetta is a sexual sadist and she is anything but motherly. Psychopath, hmm, maybe. It’s a wonder that I didn’t turn out like her. Oh, I’m not Seelie sweet; I have a distinct unseelie side to me, you can look at my Bella and see that. 

My trip out of the Sithen hopefully will be fruitful. The Deity changed my plans with the arrival of Isabella. The circle was supposed to be a covert meeting with Carlisle, Prince of the Seelie court. With my covert help, we had rid the Seelie court of his father, the late King of Light. The bastard, he may have been the King of Light, but his heart was as dark and cold as my dear mothers. Just not as twisted. Well placed rumors and near cutthroat accusations of infertility had lead to his sacrifice.

It was well founded; our last birth was over ninety years ago. His death was both welcome and a necessity. We needed children or we will die out eventually. Elizabetta, and how she fights boredom, makes up for another increase to our death rate. We fey grow fast, gestation is about five months. On our sixth birthday we resemble a human of eighteen years. The births used to happen every ten to fifteen years and each birth was a celebration. My mother is starting to look worried that she will be on the chopping block soon. Deity bless us that that will be sooner rather than later. Now it is Carlisle’s turn to reciprocate the favor. We plan to rid the court of Mother, hopefully soon.

 

**********//////////////////////*******************////////////////*

 

The banquet hall is not loud, the voices are muted. No one wants to catch the eye of our Queen. The banquet hall is actually a massive geode. Tapestry and heavy drapes cover the walls but the ceiling is open for all to see. It is covered in amethyst crystal which reflects in the torch light. An overall air of unease is prevalent. The Queen is not here, so everyone is on edge waiting to see what mood she will be in. Each house is grouped with allies and wary glances war back and forth between opposing groups. I enter by the main door escorted by my guard. I find Jasper and Emmett milling near the dais with their ladies and some of our allies. 

Prince Jacob of the Slough is here. We Unseelie are allies of the Slough, they are mingled in our blood. Some of the Unseelie, like my mother, have dark and dangerous tastes. Jacob is a prime example. He is nearly seven feet tall, dark skinned, and has black hair that reaches to the top of his thighs. His eyes are the first clue to his otherness; they are completely black with no whites to be seen. 

His father is part Pooka, Nightflyer, and Unseelie. Jacob takes more of his visible form from his Unseelie mother. Only the eyes shout ‘other’. There are rumors as to why Jacob never takes Seelie lovers. Nightflyers have tentacles and ones with royal blood have a bone hook in their penis. I don’t know which he has and don’t really want to know. I know something about him that the Slough Prince has kept secret. He can change shape like his Pooka ancestors. 

Invisible horns herald the arrival of the Queen and her entourage. The hall doors were flung inward and banged loudly against the stone. Mother does love her entrances! First through are six of her male guards. All are dressed in her colors of black and a purple that is one shade from black. None look alike; she pulls her guards from different houses in the Sithen. Blonde haired James leads the men flanked by the other favorite Riley. 

All noise in the hall ends with the arrival of our Queen. She is dressed in a midnight black gown with slits up to her breast. The only thing holding it on are well placed silver chains. Her eyes twinkle with malicious mischief, she is obviously looking forward to whatever may play out tonight. Everyone is careful not to meet her eyes so that her wicked smile doesn’t land on them or their house. 

Tonight she has a woman as her escort. She is tall with a proud look on her face and she holds her head high, defiantly. She is naked, with one exception, the leash that is tight around her neck. That proud look won’t last long upon her face and neither will the glamour she is wearing that is hiding what she truly looks like. Most don’t last a week before they are broken and simpering. At the moment though, her skin is unmarred, but soon scars will adorn it however they are physical and will heal in time, the ones that will not heal so fast are the ones that will be left in her mind. People rarely leave the queens presence without scars of some sort to keep them company in the dead of night. 

There is a sharp intake of breath next to me and I glance at Jacob. His face is contorted in anger. I now know what he is here for tonight and I have a feeling that the woman on the leash means something to him personally. I wonder what is in it for the queen to torture someone who means a lot to the Slough Prince. I begin to ponder how I can use his anger and hatred for our Queen to further my own plans and agenda. 

I glance at Emmett across from me standing with Rose. He reaches for her hand and pulls the fist she has made of it into his. He draws her into his arms for comfort and kisses her forehead. Rose and he know what the woman has to look forward to, none of it is pleasant. Rose is keeping her face set in a bland courtier look. I have a feeling Rose will not last through the performance the Queen has planned for her amusement tonight. It’s never good to leave early from one of the queen’s shows but we need to get her out before the fun starts. 

Behind the queen and her new victim follow six more guards, these are all women. The leader of the female guards is Victoria. She is the queen’s favorite out of each of her guards. Next to Elizabetta, there is no one more twisted a soul than she. I watched her tear apart a young courtier one night for the queen’s entertainment. It was the first visit by the young woman to our court, unfortunately for her and her family, it was her last visit. What did she do to deserve such a perverse death? She giggled like the young girl she was at the wrong moment. 

 

********//////////////*************//////////////////

 

The banquet progresses through the night. There is toast after toast of Elvin wine and after the second hour some of the fools around me are quite drunk. This is the most dangerous time because it is when our wicked queen and her guard are at their most alert. She eases their worries with strong wine and good food and then pounces upon some unsuspecting soul for the night’s entertainment. But tonight the crowd is really more open. They are comforted with the knowledge that the queen brought the entertainment with her tonight in the form of the woman kneeling beside her. Her look is still one of defiance. I wonder how much longer it will last.

Mother has spoken to me only a few times tonight as I sit next to her on the dais. She has been distracted with her pet and Lord Eastwick taking up residence on her other side. He is from one of our distant sithens and only comes to court on occasion. I have never trusted the man. When I was very young I learned to hide from him when he came to toady to the queen because his taste was oh so similar to my mothers. He would try to get me away from my guard, but I was always clever enough to evade him and had trustworthy guards that looked out for me and not my mother’s perversions. I have heard stories of other young men that weren’t so lucky. I lived in constant fear that she would send me to his Sithen.

There are a few things I need to do before the entertainment starts. I have to get Rose and Alice away from the entertainment. Rose, because she can’t handle the floor show; it will bring back memories of the many that she was forced to participate within. Alice needs to go because she is needed elsewhere. I need Alice out of the Sithen and handling a little human issue for me. Rose can help her. Really, what two better guards could I have? I look toward Emmett and address him in the ‘battle language’ we developed as children. It’s a series of hand movements and blinks and in situations like this one it most definitely comes in handy. He taps a reply that it will be handled and we go back to our roles as a dutiful son and a loyal guardsman.

Not long after that, Emmett interrupts the conversation of the Queen and Lord Eastwick. “My Queen, my Rose seems to be ill. If I may I will take her to our chambers.” He grins at the Queen who for some reason has always favored Emmett. He reminds her so much of her late sister who was killed in the Goblin wars but he is her youngest brothers’ child. 

Annoyed at being distracted, she frowns and seems to want to say no when Alice pipes up, “I will take her Emmett. You stay here and take care of Edward. We can rest up for later.” Thank heavens for Alice. I let plans of what I have need cross my mind and as soon as I do her eyes cloud up with a premonition. I want her and Rose with my Isabella. They can guard her, especially if my seed took. 

“Go then ladies,” she says, annoyed at the disturbance and she turns back to Eastwick. “You will enjoy what I have planned for the night. He is something special, on loan you might say.” She leans toward Eastwick and caresses his face and they share a look of lechery between them. 

“I look forward to it my Queen.” As he says this, torches flare to announce the guest of honor. Harden your heart and close your ears here comes tonight’s entertainment!

“Ah, my guest arrives.” She grinned evilly as the hall doors opened to a tall black man. I knew instantly what he was and my blood chilled. He was a Kishi. The Kishi are a race of hill dwelling creatures from Africa. They are malicious, and legend says that they have two faces. The face usually shown is quite handsome and is used to seduce its prey. The rear face is usually hidden by long thick hair, and resembles that of a hyena. It reflects all the ugliness hidden in the creature. It has long sharp teeth and jaws so strong they cannot be pulled off of anything it bites. The Kishi seduce women with its handsome face and invite them to his lair for dinner, whereupon it devours its victims. This did not bode well. 

The man walkes toward the dais holding the queen’s table. He was tall and built like a runner with washboard stomach and long muscular legs. He was very handsome with mahogany skin that seemed oiled in the light of the torches and his eyes gleamed orange. His long dark hair was in almost waist length dreads. Dressed in what looked like a roman kilt of paneled leather, he had beaded African wrist bands on each arm and wore some sort of beaded sandals upon his feet. A multitude of small daggers in a sheath ran across his chest. In his hand he gripped a tall staff which had three blades upon it called among his people a Hunga Munga. When he reached the dais he knelt to pay homage to the Queen.

“Welcome, Ata Tse from the Hill Sithen of Angola. You will make an entertaining addition to my court. I look forward to seeing your skills later tonight,” she said, licking her lips suggestively. 

“Thank you, Dark Queen, our King sends greetings and ask that you use me well.” As he says this, his eyes catch hers and he grinned in a seductive manner. 

“Oh my new pet, I plan to use you. In fact, you will give us a taste of your skills now.”  
She smiled evilly and looked down at the woman kneeling naked at her feet. “This is Leah, a boon from our friends in the Slough court. I think she needs to be initiated into our court.” She pulled Leah close to her and caressed her face. Her hands trialed down to her breast and pinched a nipple between two black lacquered finger nails. “What do you think my pretty new pet, are you ready to play for your master?”

I think I see fear in Leah’s eyes, but she shut down all emotion in her face quickly. She didn’t reply to the Queen, just kept her eyes bland and directed at the Queens shoulder. “Ata Tse, come here,” her voice is teasing now, she is getting excited. He approaches her and she hands him the leash. “No biting,” she states firmly to the Kishi.

He leads Leah to the center of the hall where he has her kneel. “I don’t know about how you do things my Queen, but I find that everything runs smoother with a little blood.” As he says this, he takes one of the small knives from the sheath closest to his heart and runs it lightly across her left breast. He leans close and sniffed the blood like you would a fine Bordeaux then ran his tongue from the bottom to the top of the shallow laceration. He stands up and a shiver seems to run the length of his body and then slowly the head of Ata Tse starts to turn and at the point where a normal humans neck would stop rotating, his continued to where we are all now looking at what should be the back of the man’s head. 

The long dreadlocks shimmered then they started to part and migrate to the back of his head covering a face that was now going slack as the other took over. What faces us now is no longer the face of something beautiful, something human. It is a jackal, but the eyes are all human. The eyes reflect a glee at the taste of the blood and a sick look of anticipation of what is to come. This begins an hour of blood play that has even the hardest members of the court turning a shade of green. By the end of the second hour Leah’s screams are hoarse but constant and her glamour has failed. 

The young lady was hiding a lot. She is part night flyer. No wonder Prince Jacob is here, she may be one of his potential mates. Only another night flyer could handle the barb of Jacob and survive sex with him long enough to birth the next generation.

Her stomach has the tentacles of the nightflyer. Comparing them to the large rough ones I have seen on male nightflyers hers are a feminine white tipped with delicate pink tips. Ata Tse had removed a few and put them aside as souvenirs. The others he removed and then ate, along with a couple of strips of the girl’s skin. She is Souagh, so all will grow back; although it will be slow and painful. 

I think the Queen is getting bored with all the blood play and she is ready for her lusts to be slaked now and the entertainment is no longer doing it for her. 

“Lord Eastwick,” she suddenly announces, “Ata Tse seems to be all for blood. Why don’t you show him how to fuck?” She sneers down at the floor show. 

Eastwick rises with a smile and stalks slowly down the steps of the dais, removing his clothes as he goes. The Fae are comfortable with a lot of things, nudity and public sex are just two of the things we aren’t shy of. 

Ata Tse has a look on his face that shows he is not happy at the interruption or the addition to the party but he falls into line quickly. He doesn’t want to disappoint the Queen and end up on the wrong end of her pleasure. He removes all his weapons and hands them to one of the Queens guards and then removes his clothing. The body is still beautiful; it seems only the face changes. His penis is already hard and dripping with pre cum. Its long, massively thick, and veined with a head which resembles a blunt club. The next hour we are forced to watch the girl being raped from every orifice available by the two men. When Ata Tse grabbed a blade and started to create another orifice, the Queen put a stop to it and called for the healers. She had them remove the girl back to her rooms.

I am glad we got the girls out of here. Rose would not have survived this night. She would have done something to either cause her death or her own unwilling participation in the floor show. The rest of the audience seems relieved that it is over. As horrible as it was nothing was said by any of them to stop our Queen. You can look at them to see the ones who dislike this part of court, but you can also see the ones who relished every moment of the show. Prince Jacob is here still. His horrified and angry face is enough to tell me that this horrifying show will be to my benefit and will get him to join my coming revolution. It looks like though his guard has had to hold him down for the show. The Queen probably enjoyed his pain as much as she enjoyed the girls. Change is needed here, this is abomination.


End file.
